East Kilbride boss: Cup run is better than winning the league

Boss Billy Ogilvie insists East Kilbride's William Hill Scottish Cup run, which is likely to end against Celtic on Sunday, "is 10 times better than winning the league".

After getting past Forres Mechanics and Stenhousemuir, the Lowland League club knew they would be playing the Scottish champions if they got past Lothian Thistle, which they duly did.

As weeks of excitement near a culmination at Airdrie's Excelsior stadium - the tie was moved there as K-Park was deemed unsuitable - East Kilbride are off the pace in their league but Ogilvie acknowledged the magnitude of his club's achievement in the cup and the publicity and money which comes along with the tie.

He told Press Association Sport: "This is better than winning the league. That is a crazy statement but it is a factual statement because we wouldn't get the coverage if we won our league, we wouldn't get the revenue it is bringing in, we wouldn't get the media exposure.

"So this has been 10 times better than winning the league.

"We will certainly not give up on the league but we never dreamt of this at the beginning of the season.

"But where you have the hype and the huge occasion that we have got, some of your lads could freeze.

"So success for me would be for the boys to perform to their capabilities that you would expect from them in a normal league game and I would take any result from that."

Ogilvie, a taxi driver, is pleased at the way the profile of the club has risen since been drawn against Celtic.

He said: "Beforehand I would speak to the man in the street, tell them that I am the manager of East Kilbride and he would say, 'who are they son, what league do they play in?'

"Now, everyone know East Kilbride Football Club and that's what the cup has brought us. So, I don't need to explain myself any more."

Ogilvie took in Celtic's shock 3-1 League Cup semi-final defeat by Ross County at Hampden Park last Sunday but even in the event of a Hoops defeat, the size of the task ahead become clearer.

"I attended the game and I am glad I did," he said. "I saw two or three good markers that will help us and especially seeing the size of some of the Celtic players.

"It isn't until you see them live that you see how tall they are so they are going to be very dangerous at set-pieces against us."